The Art of Spiritual Surrender

April 3, 2016 2:49 PM

I surrendered to Her whispers and fled the Great Nomadic Horde of the desert for the forests around Flagstaff: Robins and bluebirds and ravens and squirrels and pines and plenty of free camping and the oh so glorious solitude.

It’s too cold for the Horde—but it’s perfect for me.

Surrender is a misleading term for the spiritual seeker, yet I don’t know a better one. It’s misleading because surrender implies combat and loss and weakness and failure—yet spiritual surrender feels nothing like that:

Spiritual Surrender: a DESIRE for Divine GUIDANCE and a WILLINGNESS to FOLLOW it whenever it appears.

Isn’t that so much nicer? Who wouldn’t surrender when She leans in and whispers seductively into your ear?

How do you separate the Divine from the dirt dished up from your own mind. A mind which, in its eternal quest to capture your attention, can create some pretty convincing and captivating thoughts. We could say that “Spiritual Surrender: a DESIRE for Divine GUIDANCE and a WILLINGNESS to FOLLOW it whenever it appears” is the WHAT of surrender. Ah, but the how of it… Or to say it another way, when “stuff” pops whole cloth into your mind, how can you know if it’s from Her or from one’s own mind?

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Like this? If I lived in India, I'd be called a sadhu—a wandering holy man who survives off alms from the community. Here in America I'm just a homeless man surviving off his dwindling savings. I'm happy to provide these posts freely, but if you liked what you read, please consider a gift of alms. Donations are always appreciated and allow me to continue this work.

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